I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve listened to Kevin’s music recently. Maybe a few years or more. I’m not sure. So it’s time for to delve my toes into the water to see what I had been missing. While we’re living in tricky times since everything came to a screeching halt in March of last year when both COVID-19 and the Pandemic hit, Kastning has always given us a chance to lift our spirits.
His collaboration with Iranian clarinet player Soheil Peyghambari are brought together with the release on the Greydisc label, The First Realm. This album takes you into the smoky, heavy evenings around midnight that can make your skin crawl. Kevin and Soheil can take the listener into these deep, dark atmospheres that can send chills down your spine.
This here is a perfect combination. Between Kevin’s 36-string double contraguitar, 17-string hybrid classical guitar, and Peyghambari’s Bass and B-flat clarinet is like thunder and lightning that would hit at the right moment. When you listen to The First Realm you can almost feel a pin drop as Soheil plays his clarinet by channeling the late Lol Coxhill and some of the arrangements that David Bedford would have written for him.
It’s almost going into the dark secrets that Alice had left behind during her time in Wonderland and thru the Looking glass, but it is the nightmarish quality of going into the heavy forests. And it is a place that you do not want to go near. If you do, it can bring out these horrifying visions. But Kevin and Soheil are here to take the listener into that area to help them confront their demons once and for all.
This was another challenge for Kevin to tackle. And with The First Realm, it is part middle-eastern, free-jazz, neo-classical, and a movie inside our heads. I hope that he continues to give us more brainstorming ideas in the roaring ‘20s and hopefully once everything is back to normal, we will one day see him perform again in front of a live audience.
How would I describe MoonJune Music? Brilliant? Superb?
Amazing? Mind-blowing? Or Surreal? If the answer is all of the above, you
probably might be on the right track. It’s been 20 years since Leonardo
Pavkovic had launched the label which covers Progressive Rock, Jazz Fusion,
Avant-Garde, and World Music. Alongside Esoteric Recordings, ECM, Harvest
Records, Island Records (the Pink Years), and the swirling Vertigo label from
1969 to 1973 in its golden era, MoonJune Records is still going strong.
I first became aware of the MoonJune label back in the 2010s
when I was a student in Houston Community College when I bought Adele Schmidt
and Jose Zegarra Holder’s first of the documentary series, Romantic Warriors: A Progressive Music Saga. It was where I first
heard D.F.A. and I was hooked. It was this mixture of Italian Prog, Canterbury,
and Jazz Fusion rolled into one. And during the summer of 2010, I joined the
social media world with Facebook.
That was where I believe I became friends with Leo. If it
wasn’t for social media, the blog would’ve been done and dusted. I decided to
messaged him during that time by letting him know how much I enjoyed some of
the music what he was unleashing and he sent me an envelope of MoonJune
releases from Machine Mass Trio, Tohpati, SimakDialog, SH.TG.N, and Mahogany
Frog to name a few.
And it’s been an amazing ride to see what Leo will send
over. Whether it’s Dwiki Dharmawan, Soft Machine Legacy, Mark Wingfield,
Slivovitz, Dewa Budjana, Stick Men, or Markus Reuter, Leo always has a good ear
to bringing the world of music to life. For me who has been a supporter of
MoonJune since 2010 after watching the Romantic
Warriors documentary, I can imagine my ears would be perking to see what
Pavkovic will think of next.
In an interview last year with Cedric Hendrix on the amazing
CirdecSongs website on June 27th,
Cedric asked Leo on how he defined his place in the Music Industry; “I believe I’ve
been fairly successful in exposing a lot of great, deserving talents to a much
wider segment of audiences. I believe fans of progressive music weren’t afforded
the opportunity to become acquainted with so many great, deserving artists and
their unique art – from these and other countries prior to the impact of
MoonJune.”
“I do not feel the need to address questions as to why I did
this or that, or why I am still running the label in such a non-conformist
fashion since 2001. My approach to MoonJune has never been framed in any
conventional manner. Initially, it just happened. And it’s still happening, and will continue to happen.”
And who knows where the future will be for MoonJune Records.
Despite the world coming to a screeching halt last year in March due to the
pandemic and COVID-19, the music of MoonJune has always lift our spirits up to
make sure not just to mope and groan and be couch potatoes, but music will keep
us alive during these tricky times.
To Leonardo Pavkovic, thank you for 20 years of unleashing
incredible music from the label. Let’s see where the next 10 years will be in
the 2030s to see what you will have in store for us in the near future.
And to top all off, here’s my top 20 MoonJune favorites:
1. I Know You Well
Miss Clara – Chapter One
2. Stick Men – Prog Noir
3. SH.TG.N – SH.TG.N
4. Stephan Thelen – Fractal Guitar
5. simakDialog – Demi Masa
6. D.F.A. – 4th
7. Tohpati Ethnomission – Save the Planet
8. Machine Mass Trio – As Real As Thinking
9. Slivovitz – All You Can Eat
10. Yagull – Kai
11. Susan Clynes – Life Is…
12. Ligro – Dictionary 2
13. Zhongyu – Zhongyu
14. Stratus Luna – Stratus Luna
15. Mark Wingfield – Proof of Light
16. Mahogany Frog – DO5
17. Moraine – Groundswell
18. The Wrong Object – After the Exhibition
19. Markus Reuter – Truce
20. Dewa Budjana – Dawai in Paradise
This 3-CD/3-DVD set consists of Jethro Tull’s departure from
their Progressive roots into an electronic rocking voyage with their 13th
studio album, A. Originally released
on the Chrysalis label on August 29th in the UK and on September 1st
in the States in 1980, the album was originally going to be an Ian Anderson
solo album, but the label decided to be credited to the band instead. While
there were two original members – Ian Anderson and Martin Barre – from previous
line-up changes, the album did well.
Recorded during the summer of 1980 at Maison Rouge Mobile
and Maison Rouge Studios featuring bassist Dave Pegg and drummer Mark Craney
along with guest musician from Roxy Music, violinist and keyboardist Eddie
Jobson, A is getting the recognition
it deserving entitled A (A La Mode): The
40th Anniversary Edition. And with Steven Wilson returning to
the mixing table once more for the Tull reissues, it’s time to see what has the
maestro has done to Tull’s underrated gem.
Gone are the storytelling structures from Thick as a Brick, Aqualung, A Passion Play, and
the Folk-Rock trilogy, into soaring adventures from the Fylingdale Flyer. You can hear Barre’s guitar and Eddie’s synths
into the forefront as the doubling-vocal tracks from Ian as he sings “Through clear skies tracking lightly from
far down the line/No fanfare, just a blip on the screen/No quick conclusions
now everything will be fine.”
It does have a little bit of Rush in there as if they were
honoring a bit of the 2112-era, but
checking the channels on the plane’s coordination to make sure it makes a soft
landing with some galloping grooves. Batteries
Not Included becomes this intensive synth-rocking explosion into the danger
zone thanks to Eddie, Martin, Mark, and Ian’s improvisation on the intro.
With its nod to this incredible strange toy from the Land of
the Rising Sun, the question where are the batteries for it to work? Not only
Tull can rock, but show some humor in search of the one thing to make it turn
the lights on and make the wheels run. Eddie takes us in a darker turn with his
electric violin into the working-class Uniforms
as he helps Ian on his melodic vocal styles by going upwards and downwards.
But once he returns to the folk-rock roots with some synths
leading the way on Working John, Working
Joe, Ian doesn’t shy away from Tull’s golden-era for a brief 3 minutes as
he goes back the Premiata Forneria Marconi-sque vibrations of a medieval folk
turned heavy rock dance for The Pine
Martens Jig.
Closing number, And
Further On starts off with a nod to the unsung British jazz group Gilgamesh
from their Another Fine Tune You’ve Got
Us Into period for a minute before Jobson takes us into the deep, dark
forest as Ian sings about the pollution level has gotten worse; “We saw the heavens break/And all the world
go down to sleep/And rocks on mossy banks/Drip acid rain from craggy steeps.”
And the state on Earth has now entered the O-Zone level, but
then the dynamics from Barre’s guitar comes crashing in for Craney bringing hopefully
a small glimpse of the sunlight to perch through the dark clouds. The situation
ends on a cliffhanger on what is going to happen next. And who knows where the
next hope for peace will be and will they be there for us?
The bonus tracks on the first disc on contains Barre’s
guitar introduction for the extended version of Crossfire. It feels almost like this overture-sque scenario before
it goes straight into the original take. For me, I always felt Martin’s guitar
on the opener, should have been on the album because it gives us a take on what
the danger is to come and how we must prevent it.
Coruisk starts
with Ian’s flute by taking us into a darker atmosphere with Jobson’s echoing
piano filling up the halls before the bass, dooming guitar, and drums sends the
listener into at first these abandoned halls before the unexpected eruptive
time changes come charging in with some heavy conga grooves. Since I’ve
mentioned about Rush earlier, this is probably their take of an earlier vibe of
YYZ from the Moving Pictures period by taking it up a notch a-la Tull style!
The second and third disc is their live performance which
had been previously “bootlegged” at the Los Angeles Sports Arena during the A tour on November 12, 1980. I can
remember watching the footage of their stunning performance of Aqualung which was on VH1 classic when I
got back into the re-introduction world of Jethro Tull in the fall of 2005.
Now with the Slipstream
available on the A box set on DVD
in Steven’s mix and the Sports Arena’s recording, it makes you feel like you
have a front row ticket to watch the band’s performance at their best. From the
moment they take the stage with the blistering take of Black Sunday as Ian becomes the storyteller, you can feel they are
a part of the journey before Jobson goes into some heavy classical concerto to
be flying into a far-away land.
I can hear Dave Pegg laying down the funk on his Bass on Crossfire as he and Martin follow Ian’s
pleading on the scene of the crime and portraying his innocence while laying
down heavier militant rock vibes to Protect
and Survive. This gives Eddie a lot of ammunition he needs during the
performance between his violin and Ian’s flute solo. You can feel his
appreciation during the times he plays the synths by following Martin’s
arrangements.
He is really going light-speed on his violin as he plays
nonstop to take center stage for the audience to keep going. I could feel the
intensity of Curved Air’s Darryl Way and Mahavishnu’s Jerry Goodman. The band
members are following him in hot pursuit to see where Eddie is going into next
before Barre lays down some hammering improvisations to give Jobson more
ammunition he needs for his keyboard solo.
Now if you think he’s doing a symphonic composition, think
again. Eddie’s keyboard solo becomes dark and gothic. He adds enough charges to
bring the reverbing effects inside the arena as they cheer him on to add some
classical vibrations of Liszt’s last symphony. They also perform two tracks
from the War Child album; the dancing
sing-along for joy on Skating Away on the
Thin Ice of a New Day and the powering punch of Bungle in the Jungle.
But when it comes to the late Mark Craney during the drum
solo break on Uniform, he’s almost
like a conductor taking the drum exercises to a larger scale. He plays at times
between Buddy Rich, Bill Bruford, and Neil Peart. He’s really going into a
killer solo on the kit. Jazzy, Rocking, and in your face, Mark deserves a lot
of recognition on this number.
The verdict? While it’s not one of my favorite Tull albums,
The A La Mode box set is worth the
wait. And made me appreciate the album a bit more thanks to Steven’s incredible
mixing to show that he may have one more Tull reissue up his sleeve. So who
knows what will happen next. But it’s time to fly again once more to delve back
into the A album, and finally getting
the recognition it deserves.
I lost my Mom Saturday morning,
April 3, 2021. She had been ill for a few years. She was not only Mom, but a
teacher, book-reader, writer, editor, watching TV game shows, and loved to
shop!
The past five days since her passing have been rough for me,
my Dad, and my sister. We not only lost our Mom, but also a friend,
someone who listened, understood, helpful, special, witty, and fun. We loved
her very, very much.
When I was starting the second semester in the fall of 2005
as a student in Houston Community College after going through a rough beginning
in the first semester, I learned how to keep going. I took a course in
Commercial Music Forum from Joe LoCascio who became one of my mentors and
teacher to go from filmmaking to Jazz Studies. The course of Commercial Music
Forum was that you had to write five concert reviews.
And that was where the light bulb lit up inside my head. I
have been writing reviews since 2008. If it wasn’t for both Joe and my Mom, I
don’t know what I would be doing right now. Since starting my blogsite, Music from the Other Side of the Room, and
then writing for Echoes and Dust, and
a 2-year ride with The Progressive
Aspect, my Mom was always supportive for me to follow my dream in writing.
I know that she would want me to continue writing. And I’m
following that dream to keep going.
I remember when the late great film critic Roger Ebert
dedicated a special to his partner Gene Siskel from the Chicago Tribune who
passed away in 1999 entitled Remembering
Gene Siskel for the TV show Siskel
& Ebert. In the final segment of the tribute, Roger talked about Gene
asking the final question to either an actor or a director, “What do you know
for sure?”
Okay Mom, what do I know for sure about you, well you were
one of the smartest, polite, amazing, and funny person I got to know and an
amazing editor. To quote Ebert, It was almost impossible to tell you
anything you already didn’t know. Whether you were watching a movie marathon of
the Harry Potter series, Bette Davis, Casablanca, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or watching either Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune when
it come on in the afternoon and evening.
And I know for sure that going to movies as a family seeing The Birdcage or Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights, it was an
amazing time to go. Seeing some R-rated movies like South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut was an extra bonus!
And I know for sure that a book you finished reading whether
it was good or bad, your spirit was still high. I know it’s going to be a long
and winding road without you, being here, but your spirit and your legacy will
never die. Thank you Mom for being a part of our lives. And God bless.
This 4-CD and 2-DVD set consists of the continuing reissues
of Jethro Tull’s catalog. This one is twelfth studio album, Stormwatch. Originally released on the
Chrysalis Records label, this was the final chapter of their Folk-Rock trilogy
which started out with Songs from the
Wood, Heavy Horses, and Stormwatch. Here
in this amazing set entitled; The 40th
Anniversary Force 10 Edition, sees the band at their best, but also the
last real Jethro Tull album which marked the end for the classic line-up of the
1970s.
The theme of the subject matter behind Stormwatch deals with the problems with the environment, oil, and
money. By this time, bassist John Glascock who joined the band in 1976
replacing Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, with Too
Old To Rock & Roll; Too Young to Die!, was in bad health due to his
lifestyle with drugs and alcohol, missed out on the sessions for the album as
he appeared three on the tracks, as Ian helped out on the bass during the
recording sessions.
While there was tension behind the scenes and soon Dee
Palmer, Barriemore Barlow, and John Evan would leave during the end of the Stormwatch tour, this was also the last
real Jethro Tull album as well. So how did Steven Wilson do with the new mixing
of the album? Well, let’s delve into it.
When you listen to the fanfare of Warm Sporran, you get a feeling that the marching drum beats, bass
riffs, flutes and vocalizations are coming right in front of you. Ian’s flute
goes into this jazz-like groove before the sound delves into this Italian-like
renaissance as if they’re marching into their final battle, knowing that this
is the end of their run, but knowing they died as heroes.
I love how Barre’s guitar goes right into the punch for Something’s On the Move. It gives this
characterization of the story on the danger of the polluted wasteland has now
transformed into a nightmarish ice storm. The brutal yet heavier arrangements,
sees that there’s no sign of the sunlight happening and the death warrant has
just been signed of the mysterious ladies curse upon the frozen landscapes.
Orion becomes this
epic movie inside your head. At times it rises up with the string section,
romantic piano and acoustic guitars, and the question on how that the city of
once was, has now become this sad place with no sign of happiness while the
medieval rocking opener, North Sea Oil tackles
with the oiling business and the prices going up, it is going to be a very
heavy time for that sign of jackpot in the oil drilling business to get that
big money, but coming with a heavy price.
Dun Ringill is
Ian’s return to both Wond’ring Aloud and
Jack-in-the-Green. It’s about the
Isle of Skye as he sings through this echoing effect and playing intensively on
his guitar. It feels like a waltz at times as he’s feels the thunderstorm and
the waves crashing right in front of him by crying out to the gods at times as
Evan’s thunderous piano work on Flying
Dutchman which was inspired by a legendary ghost ship that was doomed to
set sail the oceans, goes into a sign of warning to be on the look-out for this
mysterious ship.
John’s bass line on the bonus track for Crossword on the second disc, sets up a cat-and-mouse chase through
various obstacles with Barre’s riffs before rising up to the mountains in the
midsection on trying to understand that living the grind of working, can be put
a strain between you, your family, and how do you want your future to be in the
years to come?
A Stitch in Time is
Ian’s response to Frank Zappa’s Over-Nite
Sensation with female singers to a mid-tempo heavy rock song while returning
to the medieval roots honoring Gentle Giant with these odd time changes for
Palmer’s arrangements based on an English Folk song that was written by King
Henry VIII, King Henry’s Madrigal. I
love how Tull can create this traditional composition and take it up a notch by
making not just heavier, but proggier at its peak with some twists to honor the
Rock Progressivo Italiano genre at times.
Evan strikes again on Urban
Apocalypse as he goes from piano to an attack mode on the organ at times.
This deals with the big corporations have taken over the enterprise and it is
not a pretty scenario as Palmer’s lyrics showcases the dark side of greed and
corruptive leaders have a huge amount of skeletons in the closet they don’t
want the public to know.
The eerie synths set up the nightmare that is about to come
for the Sweet Dream Fanfare as Tull
goes into this ambient moody feel to a fanfare approach, xylophones, heavier
guitars, and channeling The Moody Blues’ Procession
before getting the crowd to stand up with a brutal take of Sweet Dream. Now on Discs Three and Four
contains the full concert at Den Haag on March 16th during the Stormwatch tour at the Nederlands
Congresgebouw, which would be later known as the World Forum.
It starts off with a dooming laden for the Prelude to a Storm for the synths
setting up the thunder and dark clouds appearing out of nowhere like an
overture-sque intro before setting up the dangerous sail into the unknown
before the mournful ride towards Home
becomes this question on where do we go from here after an exhausting day at
work as Elegy fills the halls with an
emotional renaissance ride into the Grey Heavens.
As the classics with Aqualung,
Heavy Horses, Minstrel in the Gallery, Too Young To Rock & Roll; Too Young
to Die!, and the excerpts from Thick
as a Brick, it shows that Tull haven’t forgotten the fan favorites along
with an intensive guitar solo that Barre does to bring out this brutal
reverbing effect that is like a race-car drive into the finish line with some
killer improvisations.
But I wished there was some clapping to the rhythm on Old Ghosts that would’ve followed Tull’s
groove as Ian becomes this storyteller by describing the structures of the
garden at Kilmarie House. Ian isn’t just a flute player, but letting the
audience be a part of the journey from the Stormwatch
tour before the alarm of danger goes off for the dangerous live take with
Evan’s organ taking the ‘60s vibe on Something’s
On the Move.
The deluxe edition contains a 97-page booklet containing
liner notes by Martin Webb about the making of the album, interviews from Ian,
Dee, and Dave while Barre was interviewed by David Rees along with a quote from
Barlow courtesy of A New Day magazine.
It also includes photos of the tour, multi-track tapes, 45 RPM’s, tour dates,
promo posters for the album, and the time they did music for the Scottish
Ballet in February, 1981 and one for the Theatre Royal Glasgow on March 7th,
1979.
When the album was released on September 14, 1979, it got
mixed reviews in the UK. The NME considered North
Sea Oil, the worst record of the week including the Record Mirror who gave
it a disheartened review, followed by Sounds. But it got some good reviews from
the late Karl Dallas of the Melody Maker. While this album was ahead of its
time, and Steven’s mix giving Stormwatch
the recognition it deserves, and giving John Glascock the recognition he
deserves. Not just his time with The Gods, Carmen, and Head Machine, but the
swan song farewell it deserves.
But Stormwatch while
it may take time to get into. And whether you get it or not, you have to
understand that this closes the book on Jethro Tull’s amazing run they had from
1968 to 1979. And that’s where the ‘80s begins for the group in a different
period.
It’s been nearly two years since Rosalie Cunningham has
released her follow-up sole self-titled debut album which was my album of the
year in 2019. While it’s also been a year since going into lockdown mode due to
the pandemic and COVID-19, music has always kept my spirits up and running. But
Rosalie shows no sign of stopping as she’s released her single on the Esoteric
Antenna label, Number 149 and the
B-Side, Fossil Song.
The first track, Number
149, which was named after the house that she grew up in that still
photograph, is a trip down memory lane for Rosalie to remember the childhood
memories she had as a kid. There’s a bit of course, The Beatles, but with the Mellotron-sque dreamy landscapes that she and Rosco’s drumming brings, it opens the
doors up into this twilight zone-sque parallel universe.
I think of the Syd Barrett approaches that are on here while
Rosalie channels her brutal riffs in some of the midsections as if she is
crying out to the gods up into the mountains of Asgard by raising Thor’s hammer
with a battle cry. There’s also the finale where they stomp into the Slade groove
thanks to Rosco’s drum patterns, clapping rhythms, and dancing to the beat that
Rosalie does by taking the listener into the unknown.
Fossil Song is
Rosalie’s tip of her Mad Hatter’s hat to both comic book writer Neil Gaiman
and Van Der Graaf's Peter Hammill. I feel this tug towards Marc Bolan’s lyrical arrangements as
she does this cat-and-mouse texture between her and Rosco. But while the
Beatles inspirations are there, there is the Saucerful of Secrets-era of Pink Floyd in there as the midsection
sees her delving into Richard Wright’s See-Saw
with some wah-wah effects at the end that is like the finale of a psych-prog take version of Alice
Cooper’s Hello Hooray.
While it’s a single, it’s sort of what’s to come on her second
album that she’s been working on since last year. Esoteric has been one of my
favorite labels since 2008 and for her to be a part of the Cherry Red family,
it must be a dream come true for her to see what she has in store with her
follow-up for 2021.
This year has been pretty rough throughout the whole year with COVID-19, Quarantine, and Concerts not happening. And while it's been stressful as well, music can always lift our spirits up. So I hope you got your Christmas and Hanukkah wish lists ready, because here is the top 25 albums of 2020.
1. Ring Van Mobius – The 3rd Majesty (Apollon Records)
2. La Maschera di Cera – S.E.I. (AMS Records)
3. Gary Husband & Markus Reuter – Music of our Times (MoonJune Records)
4. Markus Reuter Oculus – Nothing is Sacred (MoonJune Records)
5. Gazpacho – Fireworker (Kscope)
6. Ayreon – Transitus (Music Theories Recordings)
7. Jon Durant & Robert Jurjendal – Across the Evening (Alchemy Records)
8. Louise Patricia Crane – Deep Blue (Bad Omen Records)
9. Pixie Ninja – Colours Out of Space (Apollon Records)
10. Kansas – The Absence of Presence (InsideOut)
11. Rick Wakeman & The English Rock Ensemble – The Red Planet (Madfish)
12. Kavus Torabi – Hip to the Jag (Believers Roast)
13. Hexvessel – Kindred (Svart Records)
14. Markus Reuter – Truce (MoonJune Records)
15. Ross Goldstein – Timoka (Birdwatcher Records)
16. Deep Energy Orchestra – The Return (7D Media)
17. Amy Birks – All That I Am & All That I Was (Self-Released)
18. Magenta – Masters of Illusion (Tigermoth Records)
19. The Tangent – Auto Reconnaissance (InsideOut)
20. Zoe Polanski – Violent Flowers (Youngbloods)
21. Tim Bowness – Late Night Laments (InsideOut)
22. Jon Gomm – The Faintest Idea (Kscope)
23. Fish – Weltschmerz (Chocolate Frog Records)
24. Jakko M. Jakszyk – Secrets & Lies (InsideOut)
25. Nektar – The Other Side (Esoteric Antenna)
